In 1992, a Los Angeles county parking control officer came upon a brown Cadillac El Dorado illegally parked next to the curb on street sweeping day. The officer dutifully wrote out a ticket. The officer completely ignored the man seated behind the wheel of the car, as he reached in and placed the thirty-dollar ticket on the dashboard.

The man in the car made no excuses. He didn’t argue or try to stop the officer and for good reason. For you see, unfortunately, the driver was dead. He had been shot in the head ten to twelve hours earlier but was sitting up, stiff as a board, slumped slightly forward with blood on his face.

The officer, preoccupied with ticket writing, said he was unaware of anything out of the ordinary. He got back in his car and drove off to the next illegally parked car.